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Baker on fence as minimum wage debate heating up

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
09/21/2017 06:35:09 AM EDT

By Colin A. Young and Andy Metzger

State House News Service

BOSTON -- Activists are threatening to go directly to the voters absent legislative action to raise the state's minimum wage and employers argue that the increase would spell their demise. Gov. Charlie Baker is not ready to take a position just yet.

Asked about the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a proposal that drew a large crowd to the State House on Tuesday, Baker on Wednesday morning said he wants more information before he weighs in but noted that he supported the most recent minimum wage increase.

"We've been seeking some guidance and some input from a bunch of different folks around the commonwealth about whether or not that's had positive or negative or both impacts on employment generally and I would really like to hear the results of that before I take a position on whether or not we should do this again," the governor said. "I'd just like to know more about what the impact of the first round of this has been."

The governor's position on the issue could prove pivotal if lawmakers in the coming months try to pass a minimum wage bill to avert a ballot campaign. If a minimum wage bill were met with a gubernatorial veto, lawmakers would need two thirds support in the House and Senate to override the governor.

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Gov. Karyn Polito shares the governor's opinion that further analysis of the latest wage hike is needed and she said it should include looking at data as well as hearing feedback from the business community.

"I think we should look at data. We should look at metrics. We should look at what employers are saying across Massachusetts," Polito told the News Service. She said, "We supported the adjustment to $11. That was an incremental adjustment in the wage, and we're in a phase now where we need to really evaluate how that's working not only for working families and individuals but for employers across Massachusetts."

The minimum wage in January rose to $11, the last of three annual one-dollar increases required under a law signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014, the year before Baker and Polito took office. While activists are working to put the proposal on the ballot, the $15 minimum wage has a strong base of support among Democrats in the Legislature as well. The Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing on the bill (S 1004/H 2365) Tuesday.

Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst, who believes another wage hike could be devastating to retailers, said data on sales and costs could help officials analyze the impact of the last hike. He also suggested tracking small business failures.

"No one tracks small business failures. We need to start doing that," Hurst told the News Service in an email.

The Raise Up Massachusetts coalition, which pressured lawmakers to increase the wage floor in 2014, on Tuesday backed bills filed by the late Sen. Ken Donnelly and Rep. Dan Donahue to raise the minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2021 and then tie it to inflation. Supporters said the bill would mean a pay raise for 1.1 million people around the state.

In 2015, lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker increased the earned income tax credit to provide more of a cushion to low-income workers. On Wednesday, when asked about the minimum wage increase, the governor said that EITC increase "put a significant amount of money back in the pockets of many of those folks who make eight, nine, ten dollars, eleven dollars, an hour -- 400,000 families here in Massachusetts."

Meanwhile, retailers who compete against tax-free sellers from New Hampshire and the internet are considering whether to move ahead on 2018 ballot questions to lower the sales tax to 4.5 percent or 5 percent and institute a permanent sales tax holiday as a way to spur retail activity.

The Senate recently created a task force to look at ways to help local retailers become more competitive.

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